It’s Blue Book Cover Month over here at the Diversity in MG Lit corner. I’m going to open with a book I blurbed this year. It’s a perfect choice for Black History Month by an author I truly admire not just for the quality of her writing by for her advocacy for books and young readers wherever she goes. Here’s the blurb:
All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson, Bloomsbury“The truest and kindest and most genuinely accessible grief story I’ve read in years. Teachers if you are looking for a book to open the conversation about loss, All the Blues in the Sky is a beautiful choice.” Rosanne Parry
Like All the Blues in the sky, Safe Harbor by Padma Venkatraman is a novel-in-verse. This one is about a girl reeling from the divorce of her parants and a move from India to California. But on the beach in her new home she finds and injured harbor seal and a new friend. Together they inspire their community to join in beach clean up. Fans of Lindsay Moore’s Yoshi and the Ocean or A Whale of the Wild will enjoy this tale of forging a bond with the wilderness and the healing power of friendship.
Romance novels are gradually making their way into the middle grade space, and here is a sweet one for young teens just experiencing their first love. As You Wish by Nashae Jones is a charming friend-to-sweetheart story with a dash of magic from the West African Anansi tradition. The trickster grants a wish that backfires in all the most embarrassing ways–great fun! This is a second novel for Nashae Jones.Books about trans kids are rare and when I come across one by the brilliant Kyle Lukoff, I’m determined to champion it in the bookstore. Now more than ever we need stories of trans children. What I love about this one is the engagement of fantastical elements. There is pain and even cruelty but this story asks it’s young transitioning character to examine the world through a magical lens and decide if the world is worth saving. There’s a lot to love here and a lot to talk about not just for trans kids and their families and allies. A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff is a book worth reading and championing in your own schools and libraries and bookstores.
And finally, I’m thrilled to be doing a book event with Waka Brown this week to celebrate her new book Rick Kotani’s 400 Million Dollar Summer. This one struck a chord with me even though my kids were dancers rather than athletes. A move to a small town for the summer throws Japanese-American Rick into the sphere of a high stakes youth baseball team where winning is the centerpiece. The coach ruthlessly organizes his practices and game strategies around the win and not the development of each player’s talents, even coming at the expense of player safety. I think the professionalization of youth sports plays a role in the rise of anxiety among children. I hope this book spurs conversation and change in the family culture that surrounds the ultra competitive sports scene.If I’ve missed a title coming out in the next month or two, please mention it in the comments.
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Rosanne Parry is the author of 8 MG novels including best sellers A Wolf Called Wander, A Whale of the Wild and her newest A Horse Named Sky. She sells books at Annie Blooms Bookstore in Multnomah Village and writes books in her treehouse in Portland, Oregon.